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A Danish tourist says she was gang-raped, robbed and beaten by a group of men in New Delhi - the Indian capital's latest reported instance of sexual violence against foreign women.

The 51-year-old told police the men lured her to a secluded area and attacked her at knife-point after she asked them for directions Tuesday in the popular Paharganj area of New Delhi.

Police are questioning several men in connection with the incident, but have made no arrests.

Shobha Ojha of India's ruling Congress Party said India's international reputation was being soiled by the reported rapes.

"It is very unfortunate that such incidents happen in our country, and this throws India in a very poor light and people comment that India has become the rape capital of this world. We have to be extra cautious, the entire society, the police, politicians have to make extra efforts to ensure that we change the mindset of men in our country. So that such incidents do not happen and we make India a rape free country," said Ojha.

Instances of rape have been in the spotlight in India since December 2012, when a 23-year-old woman died after being gang-raped on a moving bus.

Since then, there have been several widely publicized incidents of foreign women being attacked.

Earlier this month, a Polish woman was raped by a taxi driver while traveling with her two-year-old daughter to New Delhi.

Last year, a Swiss cyclist was gang-raped in central India, while a British woman said she was forced to jump out of her hotel room window to avoid a sexual attack in Agra, the city that is home to the Taj Mahal.

Arun Gupta, the General Secretary of the Hotel Association in Paharganj, also recommended changes to the country's tourist police.

"No tourist feels likes coming to Delhi keeping in mind all these recent incidents [of rape of foreign nationals]. The rape of a woman from Denmark is condemnable and we have been demanding from the very beginning to use tourist police. But the tourist police have now just become a show piece and it was never used for its designated purpose," said Gupta.

The rapes have set off nationwide protests. Protesters have called for tougher rape laws, major police reforms and a transformation in the way India treats women.

Afghan officials and human rights organizations assert that Pakistani authorities are using deadly attack at school in Peshawar as pretext to push out Afghan refugees More

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Comment Sorting

Comments

by: Dennis Doddridge from: WA USA

January 16, 2014 11:04 PM

Since Indian traditions favor the male child, female children are aborted disproportionately resulting in far more males than females. Not enough females to go around. Still women must purchase their husbands with piles of dowry. Combine this imbalance with a sexually repressed nation coupled with a grossly corrupt regime not interested in anything except their own kleptocracy and greed, you have a huge recipe for disaster – tourists beware!

by: Melissa Ogburn from: austin,tx

January 15, 2014 9:40 PM

Doesnt every tourist know that if you travel anywhere in India you may be gang raped? But still they travel there. Why?

by: Larrym14169 from: CT

January 15, 2014 3:49 PM

A shot in each of their backsides with a 45 caliber bullet would be a great sentence. Maybe live maybe not

by: Tom M. from: USA

January 15, 2014 11:59 AM

While the Indian govt. condones illegal behavior of it's Embassy representatives in foreign countries, why would they care what happens to tourists from those countries?

by: mark from: USA

January 15, 2014 11:37 AM

Although I think the arrest of Khobragade could have been handled differently, the Indian response was so over the top. Yes she was strip searched. Clearly a terrible experience but then you see these rapes over and over again in India involving tourists. The mindset is so bizarre that I dont think people outside India can even begin to comprehend how the male Indian mind works. Perhaps the Danish should remove the security barriers from in front of the Indian embassy until they apologize. Strip search an Indian (one without diplomat immunity at the time) or the ongoing violent rape of tourists not to mention their own citizens. Which one would justify the Indian reponse to Khobragade? Neither one really. I just can't help but to see a terrible irony here.

In Response

by: Andrew from: Thailand

January 15, 2014 4:04 PM

@Indianzombie - Whether it gets picked up by the media or not is irrelevant. Rape shouldn't be condoned or justified. Blaming somebody else is one of the problem. If the Indian gov't wants tourism to thrive than they better do something about it. Women shouldn't be targeted because they travel alone. If it means catching these moronic idiots and cut-off their penises to set example than it should be done. You can't tell me me tourism doesn't help Indians economy. India is so poor it should be happy to have ANY visitors.

In Response

by: Mark from: USA

January 15, 2014 1:14 PM

I forgot to use the word "gang rape." Rape is something that is present almost everywhere in the world but gang rape is a different story. Its the crazy lone gunmen versus a group with something in common that has gone through the effort to organize themselves. How does such a group get organized? Who even utters such words that would get something like a gang rape started? I don't hear about any other places in the world where gang rape is so common. I think any media picks up on gang rape not just the western media.

In Response

by: Indianzombie from: NY

January 15, 2014 12:05 PM

Wonder why these isolated incidents are picked up by the western media. They have nothing better to do? Westerners should stay in their civilized den. Why travel to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, North Korea etc considering you might get raped, robbed or killed.These stories of rape have been making headlines in the western media for a while and still makes me wonder why White women still wanna go to India?

by: Dave M from: usa

January 15, 2014 11:18 AM

American tourism to India should be immediately halted until the Police in India quite condoning these actions against decency.

Congress is currently pushing through emergency legislation to do just this...a 6 month ban on tourist visas to India. This ban will continue until ALL Police commanders have been changed.

by: Rk from: Uk

January 15, 2014 11:17 AM

No wonder Delhi is called "Rape Capital of the World".

by: Mike from: Reno,NV

January 15, 2014 11:04 AM

India has one of the highest rates of sexual assault on women in the world. 75% of all women in India report they have been assualted in some way. A rape occurs every 20 minutes in India.

by: Hillary Barasa from: Nairobi kenya

January 15, 2014 9:48 AM

This is cruelty of the highest order the state organs and society need to work swiftly and bring this beasts to face the rule of law.

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